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Darkman (real name Peyton Westlake) is a title character and the protagonist of the 1990 superhero film Darkman and its sequels, Darkman II: The Return of Durant and Darkman III: Die Darkman Die.
The character originated in a short story written by the film's director, Sam Raimi, titled "The Darkman," and is based on the Universal Pictures' movie monsters while retaining traits of the DC Comics WWII disfigured hero the Unknown Soldier.
He was portrayed by Liam Neeson in the original film (with a brief cameo by Bruce Campbell as Darkman) and Arnold Vosloo in the sequels.

Fictional Character Biography:
In the third film and the unaired television pilot, his biography is slightly retconned, but the character's canonical history is as such: Peyton Westlake was a mild-mannered scientist working on a synthetic "skin" capable of aiding burn victims who was in a good relationship with district attorney Julie Hastings, who indirectly caused his injuries by telling corrupt developer Louis Strack, Jr. that he could not build his "city of the future" without a permission document from Westlake's laboratory. At this, Strack hired sadistic mobster Robert G. Durant to get the document and in the process, Durant and his gang brutally disfigured Westlake, killed his assistant and destroyed his lab.

Julie believed he was dead and a funeral was held, but Westlake's hideous body was placed in a clinic that used various experiments to sever Westlake's pain receptors and enhance his strength to superhuman levels. The experiments however, affected Westlake's mental stability and he became an impulsive, bipolar, sarcastic and violent man. Westlake escaped the clinic and sought refuge in an abandoned building in the film's city. He hid his grotesque appearance with bandages and a trenchcoat and used his synthetic skin, which only lasts 99 minutes in light, managed to rebuild a relationship with Julie, claiming he survived his "accident" and constantly fleeing so that she does not see his true face. As "Darkman", he begins ruining Durant's illegal activities by framing his gang so Durant kills his own men, including his possible implied lover. After discovering the culprit is Darkman, Durant attempts to kill him from a helicopter using a gatling gun. Darkman manages to defeat his archenemy by literally clinging to the helicopter and using his strength to pull it into a tunnel and explode the chopper. Darkman gratifyingly yells "Burn in Hell!".

After this, Darkman poses as Durant in order to infiltrate Strack's new skyscraper, which was the reason the developer hired Durant in the first place. But Strack suspects Darkman will come after him and takes Julie hostage. Strack also taunts Darkman by calling him a "monster" and after a battle atop the skyscraper, Darkman nonchalantly flings Strack to his death, realizing that vengeance and rage cannot satisfy his sorrow. He also decides that he can never be with Julie because of his disfigurement and promptly abandons her, vowing to become a vigilante and bringer of justice.

After a year of crimefighting, Darkman is shocked to discover that Durant is alive and back in town and that he must again battle his archenemy and avenge a scientist named Brinkman, who he managed to partner with in order to work at perfecting his synthetic skin so he may lead a normal life. After defeating Durant, Darkman found a new enemy in drug lord Peter Rooker, who proved to be his most powerful adversary after going through a process that makes his strength equal Darkman's. Darkman managed to bring down Rooker by posing as him but felt conflicted as he fell in love with Rooker's wife and children, who he had to abandon as well to resume his life as a vigilante. Beforehand, however, he finally manages to perfect his synthetic skin, but uses the only sample to heal Rooker's daughter.

Powers and Personality:
Due to clinical experiments, the nerve endings connected to Darkman's skin have been severed, rendering him immune to pain, but unable to feel physical sensations. Additionally, to compensate for his loss of physical feelings, adrenaline flows unchecked through Darkman's body, enhancing his physical strength, speed, agility, and stamina.
Using his synthetic skin, Darkman is able to pose as criminals and trick them into engineering their own downfall.

Darkman possesses the ethics of a superhero such as not harming innocents but the tenacity and impulsiveness of a psychopath, such as reveling in the suffering of criminals and a dangerous temper, as seen in Darkman when he (disguised as his former self) breaks the fingers of an obnoxious carnival worker for refusing to give Julie Hastings the prized elephant and when Julie refuses the prize, he remarks "Take the fucking elephant!" and when a cat hisses at him, he is enraged and argues with the cat and accuses it of thinking he is a "freak of nature".
Despite his temper and preference for violence, Darkman also has a morbid sense of humor in sticky situations, when he breaks into a business meeting whilst attached to Durant's chopper, he remarks to the businessman "Excuse me!" before being pulled off again and when Strack begs for mercy, stating murder will haunt his conscience, Darkman, after only some hesitation, drops him to his death and remarks, "I'm learning to live with a lot of things".

Outside the films, Darkman has appeared in comic books on two occasions: both in series published by Marvel Comics.
In 1990 there was a three issue mini series which adapted the first movie. The comic book mini series was published at the same time as the movie's release in the theatres. Ralph Macchio wrote the script, and Bob Hall and Mark Texeira handled the artwork. It was a faithful adaptation of the movie, although likenesses of the main actors was not used. The adaptation was also released by Marvel as a single issue black & white magazine.

The second Darkman comic book series was published in 1993, and featured all new adventures of the character. Written by Kurt Busiek, with art by Javier Saltares and Andrew Pepoy, this was a six issue limited series.
The series continued to feature Peyton Westlake as Darkman, but this time the character comes up against members of the Metropolitan Club - a group of influential and wealthy men who run the city.
The series also features characters from the first movie, including Julie Hastings, Eddie Black (a character attacked by Durant and his men), and Durant himself.
The comic book series also pays homage to the comic book, movie and pulp inspirations for the character: the hospital where Julie goes to walk is called the Murnau-Sprang Mecical Centre and there are local landmarks such as Caligari Square and Allard Park.
There were hopes for Darkman to return in at least a second limited series, as noted in the one letters column published in the 4th issue of the comic. Unfortunately it was not to be...

Finally, Darkman appeared in the 4 part comic series Darkman vs. Army of Darkness by Dynamite Comics in 2007, which saw him teaming up with Ash Williams to fight a new Army of the dead that are taking over the city, led by the Deadite Queen while among the army of the undead, Darkman's deceased enemy Robert Durant is brought back as a deadite to join the fray.

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Made in Heromachine 3.